Hayley Dodd: Parents of missing Perth teen rack up thousands in debt searching for her remains

Even with her daughter’s killer behind bars, the waking nightmare Margaret Dodd and her family have lived for the past 19 years continues.

Hayley Dodd was just 17 when she disappeared around midday on July 29, 1999, while hitchhiking along a remote red dirt road to a farm outside the town of Badgingarra, some 200kms north of Perth.

Hayley and a female friend had secured casual work at the property, the Seldom Seen farm, which Hayley had happily stayed before, to help pay for their travels around regional Western Australia.

In January this year, almost 20 years later, a Supreme Court judge ruled Hayley had been murdered on the same day she vanished by Francis John Wark – a then 43-year-old primary school gardener. Wark owned and lived in a property on North West Road at the time of Hayley’s disappearance. He is serving a minimum of 21 years behind bars after being handed a life sentence.

To this day, no trace of Hayley has been found.

Over the years, her parents, Margaret and Raymond have spent around $70,000 on credit cards to pay for, among other things, a car to travel back to where Hayley was last seen, accommodation, the services of a cadaver dog from Queensland and the cost of searches.

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“Quite honestly, there is very little help for people in our situation.”

Hayley Dodd was just 17 when she went missing in late July 1999. (Supplied)

Late last month, on the 19th anniversary of her disappearance, Hayley’s family again returned to the stretch of road where the former shop assistant was last seen alive. They were there to dig up a mould of earth where three cadaver dogs and a psychic were certain human remains were buried.

“It was in the road, there were no gates to access farms, so it looked pretty isolated… it was about 4 or 5kms from Frances Warks property. So, the timeframe would have been good for him,” Mrs Dodd told nine.com.au.

“We started digging with a rig and then my daughter’s boyfriend started digging with them.

“You’re just looking for maybe the glasses that was on her head - anything at all.”

Sadly, their search returned no signs of Hayley.

“My daughter stayed there and went and borrowed a Bobcat… but there was nothing there,” Mrs Dodd said.

She said at one point her daughter found what she thought was a pelvic bone. It turned out to be a piece of worn-down timber.

“It left her quite distressed,” Mrs Dodd said.

“She wanted to do it, so that we can rest. She just turned 13 the week after (Hayley disappeared) … she’s 32 this year.”

Mrs Dodd is open and candid about the waking nightmare she and her family have lived and continue to live since mid-1999. For the family from Lancaster in the UK, the loss of Hayley has “taken over their lives”.

“We haven’t had a normal family life. Half our married life is going through this,” the Lancaster native and mother-of-five said.

“Since Hayley went missing, we had four grandchildren - we now have 15 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. That’s everything that Hayley has missed out on.”

Hayley, her parents and five siblings relocated from the UK to Australia in 1990, where shortly after her parents bought a house in Mandurah, around 72km south of Perth. Hayley was close with her family, living with them until she moved out of home around March 1999 to live with a friend at a local caravan park. It was with this same friend that Hayley would travel around regional Western Australia.

Even after Hayley moved out of home and started her travels she remained in close contact with her family, particularly her mother and sister. She regularly phoned them, sent postcards, birthday cards and presents.

This contact would prove significant after she went missing, with Western Australian Police classifying Hayley as a missing person and runaway – something the Dodds continue to have a tough time understanding.

“They keep trying to put her down for as a runaway… runaways don’t ring … send three postcards in a week. Yet they kept trying to put down on a runaway,” Mrs Dodd said.

She and her husband believe to this day, the decision to keep Hayley a missing person was to keep costs down on police resources.

“It should have been solved in 1999. It should have and could have been solved,” Mrs Dodd said.

“If they had they (police) done the job property we would not have gone through… we wouldn’t have had to fight the police for information. That would have made our life easier to bare.”

Mrs Dodd’s tone suddenly changes.

“But we can’t blame the police on the ground. They impounded the vehicle, to do the right thing, to be inspected and it never was,” she said.

Incredibly, crucial evidence in Hayley’s case was left in a police evidence lock-up for more than 14 years. The evidence included an earring matching one Hayley owned and a strand of her hair – both found in the ute Wark was driving on the day Hayley disappeared.

As for her daughter’s killer, Mrs Dodd has no doubts that Wark is responsible. Despite this, she is uncertain if he will ever reveal the location of Hayley’s remains.

“All said and done he’s not going anywhere,” she said.

“Whether he meant to do this or not but he has intentionally denied Hayley’s location. Make peace with yourself, let us know where she is."